Saturday, May 25, 2013

Due to budgetary constraints, the
managing director of a climate research institute decided that the
salaries had to be cut somewhat. She summoned all researchers and
told them that, unfortunately, the current 5%-95% salary range of 1500-4500 €/month would have to be adjusted to 1200-3900 €/month. Their reaction was lukewarm. Each believed that their
earnings lied somewhere in the middle of the range, and so the cut that
each one had to suffer would probably be not as large as they once fretted. However, when they were about to sign the agreement, the
managing director whispered:

well, .. you know that the wage
distribution is not symmetrical and that the most likely wage, that
so far was 3000 €/month, will turn to be 2000 €/month in the
future.

- "What ? This is something completely
different ! " one exclaimed.

- " Let us negotiate until the 7th IPCC
report ! " another suggested. "Perhaps the numbers may have changed by then".

Friday, May 24, 2013

Just as we have the discussion about the UBA's controversial pamphlet, Roger Pielke Jr. addresses the issue from a more general angle. Writing in the Guardian, he points out that many climate campaigners are inclined to believe that lack of political progress is caused by climate sceptics (and their resourceful funders). The myth is created that they are almighty and have already won the political debate. What is needed is a concerted effort from all goodwilling and 'serious' people (mainly scientists) to obviate their influence, thus paving the way for the achievement of GHG reduction strategies.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Joe Farman, who is commonly described as the man who discovered the ozone hole, has died last Saturday aged 82. In comparison to other researchers in the field of ozone layer science, such as the nobel prize winning Rowland, Molina and Crutzen, he attracted far less attention. For example, his Wikipedia entry is still only a 'stub' to this day - even though his death has been duly acknowledged. The Daily Telegraph, from which the picture is taken had an obituary on Monday.

Sustainable use of KLIMAZWIEBEL

The participants of KLIMAZWIEBEL are made of a diverse group of people interested in the climate issue; among them people, who consider the man-made climate change explanation as true, and others, who consider this explanation false. We have scientists and lay people; natural scientists and social scientists. People with different cultural and professional backgrounds. This is a unique resource for a relevant and inspiring discussion. This resource needs sustainable management by everybody. Therefore we ask to pay attention to these rules:

1. We do not want to see insults, ad hominem comments, lengthy tirades, ongoing repetitions, forms of disrespect to opponents. Also lengthy presentation of amateur-theories are not welcomed. When violating these rules, postings will be deleted.2. Please limit your contributions to the issues of the different threads.3. Please give your name or use an alias - comments from "anonymous" should be avoided.4. When you feel yourself provoked, please restrain from ranting; instead try to delay your response for a couple of hours, when your anger has evaporated somewhat.5. If you wan to submit a posting (begin a new thread), send it to either Eduardo Zorita or Hans von Storch - we publish it within short time. But please, only articles related to climate science and climate policy.6. Use whatever language you want. But maybe not a language which is rarely understood in Hamburg.